The Chrysanthemum is supposed to make a fairy wine that is a drink of forgetfulness, which is the foundation of the Far Eastern version of Rip Van Winkle. Mr. Chamberlain tells it as follows[1]:—
“There is an old Chinese story of a peasant who, following up the banks of a stream, bordered with flowering Chrysanthemums, arrived at the mountain home of the elves and fairies. After spending a few hours feasting with them, and watching them play at checkers, he set out on his homeward route, but found, to his amazement, on reaching the spot whence he had set out, that more than seven hundred years had elapsed and that the village was now peopled by his own remote posterity.”
Another Chrysanthemum story, of the girl O Kiku, has already been given in the chapter on Wells, but the one I like best of all is that of the Chrysanthemum Promise:
Samon Hase, a scholar and samurai, entertained a perfect stranger to whom he offered a night’s lodging. His guest, whose name was Soemon Akana, was suddenly taken ill in the night, and Samon nursed him until he was well again, the two becoming fast friends and sworn brothers. Soemon had to go back to his home
- ↑ He has also translated it into verse—from that rare thing in Japanese literature a long poem on the subject.
